The Chinese Nail Murders

Nineteenth Chapter

The identification had failed, but Mrs. Loo's elaborate act had now firmly convinced Judge Dee of her guilt.

Leaning forward he said sternly:

"Tell this court about your relations with the late boxing master Lan Tao-kuei!"

Mrs. Loo righted herself. She shouted:

"You can torture and insult me as much as you like, it doesn't matter what happens to me. But I refuse to take part in foul slander that sullies the precious memory of Master Lan Tao-kuei, our national hero, and the pride of this district!"

Loud acclamations rose from the crowd.

The judge crashed his gavel on the bench. "Silence!" he shouted. Then he barked at Mrs. Loo:

"Answer my question, woman!"

"I refuse!" Mrs. Loo called out loudly. "You can torture me as much as you like, but you shall not drag Master Lan into your evil schemes!"

With difficulty Judge Dee mastered his anger. He said curtly:

"This is contempt of court." Remembering Mrs. Kuo's warn­ing, he reflected that he had to be careful in having legal severities applied to Mrs. Loo. He ordered the headman:

"Give this woman twenty strokes with the rattan across her hips!"

An angry murmur filled the hall. Someone cried: "Better catch Lan's murderer!" Others shouted "Shame!"

"Silence and order!" Judge Dee called out in a stentorian voice. "This court shall presently bring forward irrefutable proof that Master Lan himself accused this woman!"

The audience grew still. Suddenly the screams of Mrs. Loo re­sounded through the hall.

The constables had laid her face downward on the floor and pulled down the trousers of her Tartar dress. The headman im­mediately covered her hips with a piece of wet cloth, for the law was that a woman might be shamefully exposed only on the execu­tion ground. While two of his assistants held her hands and feet, the headman let the rattan descend on her hips.

Mrs. Loo shrieked wildly, writhing on the floor. After the tenth stroke, Judge Dee gave a sign to the headman, and he stopped.

"You will now answer my question," the judge said coldly.

Mrs. Loo lifted her head, but she could not speak. At last she brought out:

"Never!"

Judge Dee shrugged his shoulders, and again the rattan swished through the air. Suddenly Mrs. Loo was still. The headman stopped and the constable turned her over on her back. They started trying to revive her.

Judge Dee barked at the headman:

"Bring the second witness before me!"

A sturdy young man was led before the bench. His head was shaved close, and he wore a simple brown robe. He had a pleasant, honest face.

"State your name and profession!" the judge ordered.

"This person," the youngster replied respectfully, "is called Mei Cheng. I have been Master Lan's assistant for more than four years and I am a boxer of the seventh grade."

The judge nodded.

"Tell me, Mei Cheng," he said, "what you saw and heard a certain evening about three weeks ago."

"As usual," the boxer replied, "this person took leave of the master after the evening exercises. When I was about to enter my front door, I suddenly remembered that I had left the iron ball in the training hall. I went back to fetch it, for I needed it for my morning exercise. Just as I was entering the front courtyard, I saw the master close the door behind a visitor. I only saw vaguely a black dress. Since I was familiar with all the master's friends, I knew I would not intrude and walked on to the door. Then I heard a woman's voice."

"What did the woman say?" Judge Dee asked.

"I couldn't distinguish any words clearly through the door, Your Honor," the boxer replied, "and the voice was completely unfamiliar to me. But she sounded angry, about his not coming to see her or so. When the master answered I clearly heard him saying something about a kitten. I knew that this affair was none of my concern, and I quickly left."

When the judge nodded, the scribe read out his record of what Mei Cheng had said. After the boxer had impressed his thumb mark on the document, Judge Dee told him he could go.

In the meantime Mrs. Loo had regained consciousness, and was kneeling again, supported by two constables.

Judge Dee rapped his gavel. He said:

"It is the contention of this court that the woman who visited Master Lan at night was Mrs. Loo. Somehow or other she had wormed herself into Master Lan's confidence, and he trusted her. Then she solicited his favors, but he would, of course, have none of her. In spiteful revenge she murdered him by dropping a jas­mine flower containing a deadly poison into his teacup, when he was resting after his bath. She had entered the bathhouse disguised as a young Tartar. It is true that a few moments ago three witnesses failed to recognize her, but she is a good actress. When posing as the Tartar she imitated a man's behavior, while just now she de­liberately stressed her womanly charms. However, this point is irrelevant. For I shall demonstrate now how Master Lan himself left a clue that directly points to this depraved woman."

There were some astonished exclamations from the spectators. Judge Dee felt that the atmosphere in the court hall was changing in his favor. The testimony of the straightforward young boxer had made a good impression on the crowd. He gave a sign to Tao Gan.

Tao Gan brought the square blackboard he had made on Judge Dee's instructions, just before the session. Six pieces of the Seven Board, made of white cardboard, had been pinned onto it. Each measured more than two feet across so that the spectators could clearly see them. Tao Gan set the board up on the platform, against the table of the scribe.

"Here you see," Judge Dee resumed, "the six pieces of the Seven Board, as they were found on the table in Master Lan's room." The judge held up a triangle of cardboard, and continued: "The seventh piece, this triangle, was discovered clutched in the dead man's right hand.

"The fearful effects of the cruel poison swelled his tongue, he could not call out. Therefore, with a last effort, he tried to indi­cate the criminal's identity by means of the Seven Board he was playing with before he drank the fatal cup.

"Unfortunately the convulsions started before he could com­plete the figure. And when he slid to the floor in his death struggle, his arm must have brushed the pieces and displaced three of them. But by slightly adjusting those three, and by adding the triangle found in his hand, the figure intended can be recon­structed beyond reasonable doubt."

Judge Dee rose. He took three pieces off and pinned them on again in a slightly different position. As he added the fourth piece and completed the figure of the cat, a gasp rose from the audience.

"With this figure," the judge concluded as he resumed his seat, "Master Lan designated Mrs. Loo as the murderess." Suddenly Mrs. Loo shouted: "It's a lie!"

Shaking off the hands of the constables, she crawled toward the dais on hands and feet. Her face was distorted with pain. With a superhuman effort she dragged herself up on the platform, and crouched moaning against the side of the bench. She panted heavily, then clutched the edge of the board with her left hand. Trembling violently she changed the position of the three pieces Judge Dee had pinned on. Then she looked around at the audience, holding the fourth piece against her bosom. She cried hoarsely:

"Look! It's a hoax!"

Groaning she raised herself on her knees, and pinned on the triangle at the top of the figure.

Then she screamed:

"Master Lan made a bird! He never tried to leave . . . a clue." Suddenly her face turned a deadly pallor. She fell all of a heap on the floor.

"That woman can't be human!" Ma Joong exclaimed when they were gathered in Judge Dee's private office.

"She hates me," the judge said, "because she hates all I stand for. She is an evil woman. Yet I must say I admire her fierce will power and her quick mind. That was no mean achievement to see at a glance how the cat could be changed into a bird—and that while she was half-dazed by pain!"

"She had to be an extraordinary woman," Chiao Tai observed.

"Else Master Lan would never have taken any notice of her."

"In the meantime," Judge Dee said worriedly, "she has maneu­vered us into an extremely awkward position. We can't press the charge of Lan's murder; we must prove now that her husband died a violent death, and that she was concerned in it. Call the coroner."

When Tao Gan came back with the hunchback, Judge Dee said to him:

"The other day you said, Kuo, that you were puzzled by the bulging eyes of Loo Ming's corpse. You stated that a heavy blow on the back of the head may cause this phenomenon. But even if we assume that Dr. Kwang was in the plot, wouldn't Loo Ming's brother or the undertaker who dressed the body have noticed such a wound?"

Kuo shook his head.

"No, Your Honor," he replied, "there wouldn't have been any blood if the blow was inflicted by, for instance, a heavy mallet wrapped up in a piece of thick cloth."

Judge Dee nodded.

"An autopsy would, of course, show the crushed skull," he remarked. "But suppose this theory is incorrect, what other proof of violence could you find on the body? It all happened five months ago already!"

"Much depends," the hunchback answered, "on the kind of coffin used and conditions existing inside the tomb. But even if decomposition were far advanced, I think I could still trace poison, for example, by studying the condition of the skin and of the marrow inside the bones."

The judge thought for a while. Then he said:

"According to the law, exhuming a corpse without valid reason is a capital offense. If the autopsy failed to produce irrefutable proof that Loo Ming was murdered, I would have to tender my resignation, and place myself at the disposal of the authorities, to be judged for desecrating a grave. If one adds thereto the charge of having falsely accused Mrs. Loo of having murdered her hus­band, there is not the slightest doubt that I would be executed. The entire Government is behind its officials, but only as long as they don't make mistakes. Our Imperial civil service is such a vast organization that there can be no margin of leniency toward offend­ing officials, even if they acted in good faith."

Judge Dee rose and started pacing the floor. His three lieuten­ants were watching him anxiously. Suddenly he halted.

"We shall have the autopsy!" he said firmly. "I'll take the risk!"

Chiao Tai and Tao Gan looked doubtful. The latter remarked:

"That woman knew all kinds of dark secrets. What if she killed her husband by casting a spell on him? That wouldn't leave any trace on the body."

The judge shook his head impatiently.

"I do believe," he said, "that there are many things in this world which are beyond our understanding. But I refuse to believe that August Heaven would allow the forces of darkness to kill a human being by magic alone. Ma Joong, issue the necessary in­structions to the headman. The autopsy on the body of Loo Ming will take place this afternoon, in the cemetery."